Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has decried the decline in the country’s revenue, saying it calls for serious and urgent attention.
Fashola, who stated this when he paid an unscheduled visit to members of the state House of Assembly, alleged that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under-remitted a whopping N2.4 trillion to the Federation Account.
While painting a very grim picture of the present financial situation, the Governor explained that for the first time in almost 14 years of the nation’s democratic experience, the country recorded some walkouts by Commissioners of Finance during the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings in Abuja.
According to him, the first one happened in 2011, while the country witnessed more of such walkouts in 2013 due to irreconcilable accounts of the federation.
“And as a result of this, some states have had in the recent past, to borrow to keep the government going.
“The reasons for those disagreements were largely reported revenue declines that were disputed by the various states as represented by their various Finance Commissioners,” he said, adding that this pattern had continued right from the second half of last year to January this year.
“The only bleep of stability is the last FAAC meeting in February. Now whilst this revenue decline has gone up, we have been unable to hold the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja.
“In the past, the meetings had held every month. The meeting has not been held now for, at least, six months in spite of clear revenue declines,” Fashola said.